Press & Journal - 26 December 2005

A Joint venture between two Robert Gordon University students and a former Grampian TV presenter has produced a new children's book about an elephant who saves lives in the face of a devastating tsunami.

Eli the Elephant was inspired by amazing true-life accounts of how these instinctive and grand animals saved both people and animals in the run-up to the catastrophic events of last year's Boxing Day tsunami.

Former presenter Margaret Donald - whose previous children's books about a Scottish sheep called Ophelia and two Highland bulls called Clootie and Dumpling have already proved a huge success - teamed up with Gray's School of Art digital media students Sophia Grant and Stuart Noble to produce this latest offering.

Sophia created the characters while Stuart concentrated on the background artwork.

Both agreed it had been a fantastically rewarding project and Sophia added: "I would love to do more. I absolutely love creating characters and doing all their expressions.

Her co-artist said: "There are not many students who can come out of second year and say they have been part of a published book. That in itself has been an experience."

The story tells how Eli looks out to the ocean before the tsunami and knows all is not well. He attempts to tell his younger brothers Eddie and Elton and although his attempts initially fall on deaf ears he eventually persuades them to help mount a huge rescue operation to save animals great and small.

Mrs Donald hopes the book will help teach children about the natural phenomena but it will also help provide new school resources for young tsunami survivors.

     

All funds from the book, which is now on sale in India, will be donated to the Colombo-based Foundation of Goodness charity - set up by Aberdeen man Stewart Ritchie and dedicated to providing aid to those affected by the tragedy.

Mrs Donald was personally touched by events in south-east Asia last Boxing Day as six members of her family were holidaying in Thailand at the time. She spent a few anxious hours before hearing they were safe. But it was the touching true-life tales of the heroic behaviour of the elephants - recounted to her by a friend who had been in Sri Lanka - which led her to put pen to paper once more.

"She told me all these stories about how elephants had been picking up their keepers, who were very reluctant, and dumping them on higher ground and then coming back for more," she said.

"They were just picking them up with their trunks. I just thought it was so amazing.

"But the real purpose of the book is to help young children understand the signs and actually know what tsunamis are."

Publisher India Research Press have also asked Mrs Donald to write a sequel to the tale in which Eli helps with the clean-up operation.

Negotiations are also continuing at the moment to bring it to other countries.

It could also be the first in a whole series of books teaching children about natural disasters - Mrs Donald has already written another story about Hurricane Katrina and is waiting for the next stage in its road to publication.

Previous books about Ophelia and Clootie and Dumpling inspired a series of popular cartoons which have done well in both the UK and around the world.

It is also hoped artists Sophia and Stuart will be able to visit Sri Lanka early next year to meet some of the children who will benefit from their work.